Montana’s Coal Cowboy Attempts to Blackmail Local Officials to Support Coal Mine.

Governor Schweitzer–in what is very likely a violation of the Montana State Constitution and most certainly a violation of what most nice, respectable people consider to be civil and decent–is attempting to coerce county governments to proclaim their support for the State Land Board’s recent decision to undersell 572 million tons of coal reserves in the Otter Creek valley to mining giant Arch Coal.

Schweitzer, apparently, sees it as a grave injustice to allow communities that do not support coal development (“whether because they don’t live near hydrocarbon production or other reasons,” in the words of the infinitely wise and eloquent governor himself) to receive state money garnered from said development.

Aside from the blatant illegality of withholding state stimulus funds from local officials until they pay Schweitzer his desired ransom (namely, their dignity), the point that the governor is trying to make (“if you don’t like America, you should move your ungrateful commie ass back to Russia,” essentially) is also problematic. It is this very logic which has, throughout the years, guided the Coal Cowboy in his myopic and asinine political crusade on behalf of the fossil fuels industry.

The issue of Otter Creek coal, however, is not: If we don’t strip mine our last remaining hydrocarbon resources, then we won’t have any money for roads, education, disability services, etc. That’s a ruse, a false dichotomy.

Rather, the actual and utterly exigent problem we face today, right now, here in the real world, runs more along these lines: if we don’t make immediate and dramatic reductions in carbon emissions (from coal and other fossil fuels) then we will continue to see an increase in global-warming caused natural disasters, eventually resulting in an unstoppable positive feedback loop of catastrophic proportions–a total global calamity who’s victims will be (and already are) the people who have contributed the least to its cause.

Five activists with Northern Rockies Rising Tide (NRRT) shut down a meeting of the Montana State Land Board in Helena, MT last Thursday, temporarily halting the leasing of 572 million tons of state-owned coal reserves. Following over two hours of public comment regarding the leasing of the Otter Creek Coal Tracts and Secretary of State Linda McCulloch’s move to accept the bid, the five activists staged a sit-in, disrupting the meeting as they chanted “You’re not listening! Hands off Otter Creek!” Rushing the front of the Land Board meeting room and locked down to each, the activists refused to leave until the decision to accept the bid was tabled indefinitely (or they were arrested). After halting the bidding process for nearly an hour all five were finally arrested and taken to the Lewis and Clark County Jail with charges of disorderly conduct. All five posted bail and were released Thursday evening.

After spending months submitting public comments, writing letters to the editor, testifying in front of the Land Board, and taking all possible action within official channels, opponents of the lease (ranchers, high school students, environmental justice advocates, and other Montana citizens) realized what they had suspected all along: the supposedly democratic process for leasing state lands in Montana is far from democratic.

From every corner of the state Montanans have overwhelmingly vocalized their opposition to the lease (including high school walkouts and other public demonstrations), but three of the five members of the Land Board–Governor Schweitzer, Secretary of State Linda McCulloch, and State Auditor Monica Lindeen–have refused to stand up to the pressures of “King Coal.” In particular, the NRRT activists complained that the impact of Otter Creek coal on climate change was not taken into account. In fact, at one of the Land Board hearings Gov. Schweitzer refused to allow activists to talk about climate change because he said that the issue of the Otter Creek Coal Tracts is not about coal burning but is strictly about coal mining. Unless he’s going to turn coal into freakin’ chocolate brownies it’s hard to see his logic there. What else do you do with coal but burn it (well, liquefy it, but that’s not Arch’s plan, nor is it a solution to the climate crisis)?

The Otter Creek coal tracts are located in southeastern Montana in the northern Powder River Basin. They are arranged in a “checkerboard” land ownership pattern whereby the state of Montana owns half of the tracts and Great Northern Properties owns the other rest. Great Northern Properties’ portion of the tracts were leased to Arch Coal in November. Overall the Otter Creek tracts contain about 1.3 billion tons of coal.

Otter Creek opponents also believe that the development of the Otter Creek tracts is sending Montana down a slippery slope of coal development that will lead to a windfall of strip mining operations in the region, replete with the usual environmental and social catastrophes. Currently, there is very little railroad infrastructure in the northern Powder River Basin. By leasing the Otter Creek tracts the Montana state government has guaranteed that the Tongue River Railroad will be built, which will open up the northern

Powder River Basin to massive coal development. The northern Powder River Basin alone (not including Wyoming’s portion of the Powder River Basin) contains approximately 9% of the entire world’s coal reserves.

Leasing the Otter Creek coal tracts would not only devastate the communities through which the Tongue River Railroad would pass, but, as we all now know, we must immediately stop burning coal and other hydrocarbons if we are to avert a total global disaster. According to Nobel laureate and University of Montana professor Steve Running, “This is where the rubber meets the road,” in terms of climate change.

When the coal from the Otter Creek Tracts is burned in coal fired power plants it will release approximately 2.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The burning of this coal will most likely not be in the U.S. In November, when Arch Coal leased Great Northern Properties’ coal, they said as much: Faced with the possibility of national climate legislation and carbon caps, Arch, as always, is on the forefront of innovative corporate solutions–they’ll just ship their coal to Asian markets where they won’t have to worry about such progressive restraints on the free market.

The land that contains the Otter Creek coal reserves belongs to the Montana State School Trust. The state of Montana owns 6 million acres of such land and leases out this land for various ventures such as resource extraction projects, cattle grazing allotments, and even a few wind farms. The money from these projects funds the K-12 school system. The Otter Creek Coal mine will be the largest single project ever on School Trust Land and will ensure that Montana’s school system will be funded by dirty coal money for years to come. In February, outrage over the leasing of Otter Creek grew among high school students to the point that there were a series of high school walkouts in which Montana’s students stated loud and clear “no dirty coal money for textbooks and computers!”

Ironically on the same day the Otter Creek Coal Tracts were leased, Federal District Judge Malloy in Missoula, MT suspended 38,000 acres of oil and gas leases on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in Montana as a result of a law suit brought by the Montana Environmental Information Center, the Oil and Gas Accountability Project and Wild Earth Guardians. The environmental groups sued the BLM on the grounds that the oil and gas drilling process releases too much methane into the air. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas then carbon dioxide and approximately 23% of all U.S. methane emissions are from oil and gas leasing projects. Another major source of methane is from coalbed methane, and is released during the process of coal mining. Given that most of the coal in the Powder River Basin is on public land owned by the federal government, as well as MT and WY state governments, it will be interesting to see in the coming years if this will also become a strategy to stop coal mines on public lands.

The fight to stop the Otter Creek coal mine is just beginning, and we’re not going to stop until we win. Hands off Otter Creek!

Come to Helena tomorrow to tell the Land Board Hands Off Otter Creek Coal!

This is it folks…our last chance to tell the Land Board to not develop any new coal on our State School Trust Lands. Tomorrow at 9am at the State Capitol Building in Helena the MT State Land Board will make a decision that will effect the future of our climate. The Land Board will vote on whether or not to accept a bid submitted yesterday by Ark Land Co. (a subsidiary of the world’s second largest coal mining company Arch Coal) of nearly $86 million on the 572 million tons of state owned coal in the Otter Creek Coal Tracts.

Arch Coal has already won a contract to lease the privately owned portion of Otter Creek which makes for a grand total of 1.3 BILLION tons of coal to be mined. This will produce 2.6 BILLION tons of CO2 emissions when the coal is burned. And to make matters worse Arch coal has said that most of this coal will be sent to China and India to be burned making this coal exempt from pending climate legislation in the U.S.

This is our last chance to publicly speak out to the Land Board!

Come with us tomorrow and give the Land Board an earful about how mining and burning that much coal just plain sucks. After all, the only way to truly sequester carbon is to LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND!

On Tuesday, February 16, the Montana State Land Board once again made a mockery of the “democratic process,” ignoring the solid and heartfelt arguments of the public as it moved to give Otter Creek away for a pittance, caving under pressure from mega-corporation Arch Coal. At the previous meeting of the Board, a bonus bid of 25 cents per ton was set as a supposed minimum sale price to avoid subsidizing controversial aspects of the Otter Creek mining proposal, such as the Tongue River Railroad. However, a majority of the board members are apparently so desperate to destroy the pristine alluvial Otter Creek valley in southeastern Montana that when no companies accepted the already undervalued price by the February 9 bidding deadline, they voted 3-2 to lower the asking price and try again.

February 16th Mt Land Board meeting

Environmentalists, Northern Cheyenne tribal members, educators, students, ranchers, business people, and Northern Rockies Rising Tide attended the meeting to tell the land board to stop the proposed ecocide at Otter Creek. Gov. Brian Schweitzer received particular attention from the public commenters as he was confronted about his corrupt business affairs such as the $100,000 campaign contribution he reportedly received from Arch Coal Co., the primary corporate interest in Otter Creek.

The only response the land board received by the February 9 bidding deadline was a letter from Ark Land Co., an Arch Coal subsidiary, asking for the price to be lowered. Arch Coal already holds the lease on adjoining coal tracts owned by Houston-based Great Northern Properties. As the state and private lands are positioned in checkerboard fashion, it is widely accepted that the coal could not be feasibly mined by Arch without access to both the Great Northern and Montana School Trust Lands at Otter Creek.

As opponents to mining at Otter Creek faced an increased number of comments by mining proponents, primarily paid union officials pontificating to the all-democrat Land Board about job creation, the meeting took on a more contentious tone than previous ones. Testimony included more direct verbal attacks on the land board members themselves, particularly the Governor. One protester breifly shouted down Gov. Schweitzer about ten minutes into the his twenty minute speech justifying the leasing of Otter Creek (a speech so full of strange non sequiters, including a very bizarre metaphor comparing democracy to a grapefruit, that many of the Governor’s listeners walked away more confused than convinced). As Schweitzer was rambling on about coal bid prices and other purposely convoluted economic rhetoric, the person in the “peanut gallery” yelled out “Your three minutes are up, Governor!” referring to the three minute time-limit set on public comments.

Hellgate students at the courthouse

Students from Hellgate high School in Missoula, MT march against the leasing of the Otter Creek Coal Tracts

Only Denise Juneau, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Steve Bullock, Montana Attorney General, voted against lowering the bid price.

Later in the afternoon on February 16, students from Hellgate High School in Missoula marched with chants and picket signs from their school, across the Higgins Street Bridge on the Clark Fork River, to the Missoula County courthouse in protest of the Land Board’s plans to give away Otter Creek to be mined. This is the second protest by high school students in as many weeks about Otter Creek. One week prior, on February 9, students from nearby Big Sky High School left class early in a similar protest.

The Montana State Land Board received no bids for Otter Creek coal by the 5pm deadline Monday, February 8th. Though four of the five members of the Land Board voted to receive bids from companies to mine 616 million tons of coal at Otter Creek, near Ashland, MT, the only response submitted was a letter from Ark Land Co. saying that the price was too high. Ark, a subsidiary of St. Louis based Arch Coal Co., and infamous for swindling property owners out of their families’ lands in Appalachia for King Coal’s war on mountain tops, is reported to have stated that the royalty price of 12.5 percent was more than Ark is willing to pay. Though no alternative royalty rate appears to have been suggested, state law requires a minimum of 10.5 percent for coal mined from any state-owned land in Montana.

The Land Board convenes next Tuesday, February 16th, in Helena to discuss their next course of action. They have the option of lowering either the royalty or bonus bid prices in hopes of winning over some bidders. They could also decide to stay true to some board members’ December 21, 2009 affirmations that the state will not subsidize Otter Creek development through rock-bottom prices.

“The State of Montana will not subsidize the Tongue River Railroad,” said Gov. Schweitzer during the December 21st meeting, referring to the rail line proposed to provide easy access for Otter Creek coal to the national rail system. The railroad has been opposed by area property owners and ranchers for over three decades due to excessive ecological, social and economic impacts it would impose on the Tongue River area.

Big Sky students rally against Otter Creek coal.

In Missoula on Tuesday, February 9th, about 100 students from Big Sky High School walked out of class early to protest the proposed leasing of Otter Creek coal, and to send a message to the Land Board that students do not want coal mined in their names. The Otter Creek coal tracts are located under state school-trust lands, which means all income the state receives from exploitation of those lands should be used to fund the state’s education system. After leaving classes in defiance of Big Sky administrators’ efforts to enforce school authority, many students then marched about a mile to the busy intersection of South & Reserve where they held a rally, chanting slogans such as “No blood for money! We gotta keep Otter Creek!”

“We, as students from Big Sky High School, do not want our school funding to come from coal,” said Allison Lawrence, one of the protesters at the rally. “We would rather live with old books than get blood money for shiny new computers.”

Students walking out of class in protest.

On Thursday, February 11, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation will submit its official recommendation to the Land Board about a next course of action to be taken at the February 16 meeting. It is worth mentioning that the only member of the Land Board to vote against leasing Otter Creek at the last meeting is Denise Juneau, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the very institution that would supposedly benefit financially from mining Otter Creek! If other members who voted for leasing the coal tracts only on the condition of getting maximum income from the lease stay true to their words, then next week’s meeting could result in an end to this whole misguided attempt to destroy pristine Montana land. A refusal to lower the bid and royalty prices may effectively protect Otter Creek… for now.

Join Northern Rockies Rising Tide and others at the next Land Board meeting, 9:00am on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at the Montana State Capitol in Helena. Help us make sure that Montana’s top politicians know that their attempts to mine Otter Creek are lacking the consent of Montanans!

On December 21st the Montana State Land Board opened the bidding process to lease the coal beneath Otter Creek. All bids are due by the end of the day on February 8th. By the 9th we should know what kind of bids were recieved. At the next Land Board meeting, on February 16th, the decision to accept or reject a bid will be made. Three things could happen:

1. The Land Board recieves the full asking bid of $.25/ton of coal and approves (or rejects) the lease right then and there.

2. The Land Board recieves a bid of less than the asking price, under $.25/ton. They then debate whether to reduce the price and accept (or reject) the under-bid.

3. The Land Board recieves no bid at all. They then debate whether to lower the asking price or reject leasing Otter Creek altogether.

Through all this, there is one important thing to remember: the Land Board made the decision to open the bidding process thinking that Montanans didn’t care about Otter Creek, that it wasn’t important to us. On December 21st the Land Board heard more public testimony in opposition to the Otter Creek lease proposal than it had for any other single issue…ever.

After the meeting, their decision received widespread media attention which catalyzed a steady flow of calls to the LB, letters to the editor, and public pressure all touting the danger of leasing Otter Creek. This pressure has had an effect, and we need to keep it up. Call the Land Board and tell them what you think about Otter Creek, write a letter to the editor supporting Denise Juneau and asking the rest to follow her example, and check back here for upcoming actions, protests, and media events.